


Take Your Child To Work

by thelittlestbird



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2018-01-18 19:53:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1440772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelittlestbird/pseuds/thelittlestbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern AU: It's Take Your Child to Work Day at Westeros, Inc., and Tommy Lannister-Barton finds a new friend. Hijinks, official decrees, and kittens ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Your Child To Work

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CommaSplice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CommaSplice/gifts).



> Prompt: “Something fluffy with Tommen. Thinking modern AU. (Bonus points if kittens and beets are woven into it).”
> 
> Spoilers for Book 5; references to character deaths in Book 3

The big glass double doors said Westeros, Inc., in shiny metal letters. The break in the doors came right after the T, and the ‘West’ part swung back so hard that it nearly hit the wall as Mama pushed her way through.

C.C. Lannister-Barton always wore black, and she always wore high heels, and she always wore her blonde hair swept up in a knot. Tommy thought she was the most beautiful person in the world, and also the scariest.

Tommy was nine years old. He had blonde hair and green eyes just like his mother, but he was short and round and a little clumsy, and felt messy even though he was wearing a neat blue button-down shirt and sharply creased khaki pants. He was sure that he _would_ be messy in a few minutes, no matter how hard he tried to keep himself neat, and that Mama would notice. She never noticed when he spent two hours doing everything exactly right; she only noticed the one minute when he did something wrong.

He held Mama’s hand tightly, and hopped and skipped to keep up with her as she clicked alongside him on her high heels. She paused for just a second under the red-and-yellow banner that proclaimed “Take Your Child To Work Day,” and took an extra moment to glance around, seeing if anyone was looking at them. 

“Good morning, Howard. Look who I’ve brought for Take Your Child To Work Day,” Mama said to the security guard at the front desk. She seemed proud of herself for remembering the security guard’s name.

His name was Harold. Tommy could see that on his nametag. 

“Morning, ma’am,” said the security guard. Then he looked down at Tommy and his smile grew warmer. “You stay out of trouble now, young man.”

“Oh, he will,” Mama answered for him. “Someday all of this will be his.” She smiled brightly down at Tommy. “You know that, right? You need to watch carefully today. You’re going to learn important lessons about being in charge.” 

It should have been his sister Marcy who was in charge. She was two years older, and much better at math. But Daddy’s will left the company in trust to his sons, and Tommy was the only son left now that Jeffrey had died. Nobody talked about Jeffrey. So Marcy was off at boarding school in Connecticut, and Tommy was learning how to take over the company someday. Tommy wished Marcy were still here. He wanted to talk to someone about Jeffrey, and he couldn’t talk to Mama, because then Mama would cry.

As they walked away from the security desk, Mama’s phone rang again. “Tanya!” she cried happily. Tanya Merryweather was Mama’s assistant, and they were always talking about something. “Tell me you’ve got something about RoseCorp, _please_ , darling. You know they have – “ Mama paused, glanced at Tommy, and looked away, her voice dropping nearly to a whisper as she continued, “You know they have the votes on the board to _do something_.”

RoseCorp meant Margery Tyrell, and he liked Ms. Tyrell. She’d been nice to him at the Westeros Christmas party – she’d given him a hug and talked to him for a long time about how brave he was to keep going after losing Daddy and Grandfather and Jeffrey. That surprised Tommy, because he never felt brave, and Mama always said that he wasn’t. He cried a lot, and Mama said that brave people didn’t cry. He’d never wanted to punch back when Jeffrey had punched him, and Mama said that brave people defended themselves. Brave people took _initiative_ , like Jeffrey always did. Tommy knew he’d never be like Jeffrey, ever, and that probably meant that he’d never be brave.

But when Ms. Tyrell said that he was brave, she sounded like she meant it so much that Tommy wondered if maybe he was brave after all.

And then, best of all, Ms. Tyrell gave him a Christmas present, and it was kittens! Three kittens! They were the best thing _ever_. Mama was really really angry, but she couldn’t say no because everyone at the whole party had seen Tommy open the present. So she yelled at him afterwards, and yelled on the phone to Tanya about Ms. Tyrell, but Tommy got to keep the kittens. He’d named them Sir Pounce, Lady Whiskers, and Boots, and every time Ms. Tyrell came to meetings at Westeros Inc, she asked how they were doing and she always listened, no matter how long it took Tommy to tell the story. 

So when Mama talked about RoseCorp “doing something,” Tommy figured that it couldn’t be anything bad, not if Ms. Tyrell was doing it. But Mama looked worried, and tried to turn away from him as she talked to Ms. Merryweather. “Yes, we need the money,” she whispered, “but I’m not prepared to give up that much to get it.” She was looking around again, checking to see if anyone was watching her, but now she looked like she hoped people weren’t watching. “I have to think about Tommy and the future. I won’t let anything happen to this company, or to him.” Her hand had tightened around Tommy’s, so much that it almost hurt, but he held on anyway because he liked holding hands with Mama.

Mama was quiet for a while, just listening to Ms. Merryweather. Then finally, she sighed. “All right. I trust you to take care of it. I’ll see you tonight,” she said, and hung up. She tossed the phone back into her purse and pulled out a compact instead, turning her back on Tommy so he couldn’t see what she was doing. He knew what she was doing anyway – she was putting on more makeup to cover the dark circles under her eyes, because she hadn’t slept much.

That’s when Tommy realized that his backpack was moving. And mewing.

That’s when Mama realized it too. “Thomas!” The compact snapped shut with a sharp click as Mama wheeled around to glare at him. “What was that? Do you have something in there?” 

“Um,” Tommy floundered, trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t get him in even more trouble. “Only one?”

It didn’t work. “Only one what?” Mama ripped open the zipper, pulling so hard that Tommy nearly stumbled.

“Only one kitten.”

He’d only brought Boots with him, because to bring all three kittens would just be too much. It would be _excessive,_ Uncle Tyrone would say, because he liked big words. Tommy liked that word, too.

“What the he – “ Mama caught herself just in time, and started again. “What _on earth_ were you thinking? You brought an _animal_? One of those filthy things that Margery Tyrell gave you?” She said Ms. Tyrell’s name like it was a bad word, or a food that didn’t taste good.

“They’re not filthy!” Tommy protested. “They’re always washing themselves. And we’re supposed to take someone to work so I did because I don’t have kids but I have kittens and we’re _supposed_ to!” He knew what he wanted to say, but when Mama glared at him like that his words always got mixed up and he felt like he wanted to cry. “And it’s not excessive!” Maybe a big word would help? He tried another one, too. “I took _initiative_! I thought you’d like that!”

She didn’t. “You need to send that thing home at once!” Mama pulled her cellphone out, punching numbers impatiently. “Frank?” She sounded as angry with Frank as she was with Tommy, even though the driver hadn’t done anything. “I’m sending Tommy to the front entrance. You need to take him home so that he can _drop off_ his kitten, and then bring him right back.” Without waiting for an answer, she slammed the hang-up button and spun back to Tommy. “You hear that? Go home, leave that thing there, and then meet me in my office.” Tommy nodded, biting hard on his lips to keep them from quivering. “And don’t _cry_!” she snapped in exasperation. “God! How are you ever going to lead this company if you cry all the time?” She spun on her heel and walked away, already poking at her phone again.

Tommy plunked down on one of the hard metal abstract-art benches and picked up Boots. “It’s okay,” he whispered to the kitten. “She’s gone now.” Boots wriggled a little as Tommy held her up to his face, but after a second she snuggled down into the crook of his neck, letting out tiny rippling purrs. When she was purring, he didn’t want to cry as much. So he sat there for a long time, just hugging Boots and sniffling and listening to her purr.

“Are you okay?”

The voice startled Tommy, and he looked up.

There was a girl standing there. She was about Tommy’s age, with brown hair held back in pink barrettes, lots of freckles, a plaid dress and scuffed patent-leather shoes. “Are you okay?” she asked again. She gave Boots a curious look, then looked back up at Tommy. 

“I – I think so,” Tommy snuffled. 

“’Cause you looked sad,” the girl persisted, with a worried frown. 

“My mom yelled at me,” Tommy admitted. “But I’m okay.” He wiped away his tears, keeping careful hold on Boots so she wouldn’t climb out of his lap. “Um. I’m Tommy Barton,” he offered.

“Oh, I know,” said the girl. It always surprised Tommy when people said that. “I’m Patty Small. My dad’s Joe Small. He works in Maintenance.” When that was out of the way, Patty finally asked the question she’d clearly been dying to ask: “Your mom let you bring your _cat_?”

“Um,” Tommy stammered. “She didn’t really let me. That was why she yelled at me.”

Patty’s eyes widened. “You mean you went behind your mom’s back and did something she didn’t like?” For a second, Tommy didn’t really understand the expression on her face, but then he got it: Patty was impressed. He almost felt like he wanted to smile. “What’s the cat’s name?” She plunked down on the bench next to Tommy. “Can I pet it?”

“Her name is Boots.” Very carefully, Tommy held the kitten out towards Patty. “She likes it when you scritch behind her ears.” 

Patty reached a careful finger out towards Boots’s head, patting very gently. “She’s really cute.”

This time, Tommy didn’t just feel like smiling; he did smile. “Thanks.” Having someone praise his cat was almost like having someone praise him, and that made Tommy feel proud. “Um. Shouldn’t you be with your dad?”

Patty rolled her eyes. “Dad has to go clean the restricted wing,” she sniffed indignantly. “And they wouldn’t let me in!” That was where people worked on new inventions and complicated computer programs. Tommy nodded sympathetically – he always wished that he could go watch them inventing things, but nobody was allowed there without special permission. “Today’s the first time I’ve seen him all week ‘cause he’s been working so hard, but I couldn’t go with him! He said that I should go to the cafeteria and wait for him there, but I got bored, so I started to go exploring.” She paused for a second, chewing on her lower lip – the first bit of uncertainty that Tommy had seen in her – and then made her decision. “Wanna come?”

“You mean…come explore with you?” Tommy asked.

Patty nodded, her grin brightening again with the excitement of her own ideas. “We can go anywhere that isn’t in the restricted wing. There’s tons to discover! We can see if there are any hidden passages or secret rooms, or secret files that got left out in the open.” 

Tommy was about to say no, because he had to go do what Mama had told him to. But then it hit him: Mama thought he was with Frank, and Frank thought he was still with Mama. He didn’t have to be _anywhere_. So instead, he could be by himself.

He could take _initiative_.

“I know where we can get pens and stamps and stickers,” Tommy suggested, his grin starting to come back.

* * *

They spread out their loot on the broad dark surface of the conference table. Together, Tommy and Patty had gathered a ream of paper, a handful of highlighter pens in neon colors, another handful of regular markers, some metallic star stickers, some inkpads and rubber stamps. Tommy tried to get Boots to put her paw on the inkpad so that she could stamp pawprints across the paper, but she hissed and squirmed so much that he let her go. She flounced indignantly away and started licking her paws.

Tommy drew a forest of neon-green trees, pasted metallic stars on them, and stamped each tree with a red ‘CONFIDENTIAL’, while Patty scribbled page after page with yellow ink and held them up to the wall sconces. “There’s a way to make invisible ink out of highlighter pens,” Patty explained, her eyes bright and eager. “I saw it on the internet. If I can get it to work, we can use it to write secret messages. Like spies!”

But best of all was the embosser. You stuck the corner of a page in it, and pressed down, and it embossed the seal of Westeros, Inc. into the paper. It made a great crunchy thunk! noise when you pressed down. While Patty kept working on her invisible ink, Tommy embossed two whole sheets of paper with overlapping seals.

“We need to say something official,” Tommy decided. “We’ve got the seal.” Having a seal makes something official – Tommy remembered Grandfather saying that all the time. “I’m going to make blue the official color of Westeros, Inc.” He grabbed a blue marker – he needed something more formal than a highlighter pen for this – and started to write it out: _Blue is the official color of Westeros Inc. Signed Thomas Lannister-Barton._ He had to write really small to get all the letters of his last names in, and the –ton of Barton squiggled down the side of the page. But he had the seal, so it would be official no matter what it looked like. Thunk! went the embosser, and Tommy giggled. He ducked into the hallway to stick his official notice on the bulletin board. It looked very official.

When Tommy came back, Patty had the embosser and a fresh piece of paper. “I’m going to say that my dad gets to take off work on my birthday,” Patty decided. Very very carefully, she wrote ‘OFFICIAL’ in neat red-marker letters at the top of a page. Her teeth crept over her lower lip and her blue eyes narrowed as she concentrated on writing: _Joseph Small gets vaca_ – “How do you spell ‘vacation’?” she asked.

“Um.” Tommy looked up from where he was trying to get Boots out from behind the video projector. “With a C, I think.” He wasn’t sure where the C went, but he knew there was one.

 _Joseph Small gets vacacion on September 23 because it is Patty’s birthday. Official._ Her words went in a perfectly straight row even though there weren’t any lines on the paper. Tommy was impressed. “There!” Patty declared, freckled face splitting into a grin. 

She looked so happy! Tommy remembered that she hadn’t seen her dad all week because he’d had to work such long hours, and having him there for her birthday must be something really special. He hated to say anything to spoil it, but if he didn’t say anything, he’d feel like he was lying to her. It would be even worse to lie to a friend than to spoil their fun. Mama said that lying was fine sometimes, but Tommy still didn’t want to do it. 

“Patty? You know I can’t really do anything official at Westeros.” The words came out slowly, around his awkward apologetic grimace. “Not till I’m 25. I’m just pretending about the official color. I can ask if your dad can have the day off on your birthday, but…”

“It’s okay.” Patty’s voice was a little softer now, and something in her tone made Tommy look back up at her. “I know it isn’t real.” Her blue eyes were very very serious, and her crooked smile looked like Uncle Tyrone’s did sometimes – sad even though it was a smile. “But I wanted to pretend too. You know?”

Tommy nodded. “I know,” he said quietly. He reached over and stamped the corner of the page with the embosser. This time the thunk wasn’t as satisfying. Patty folded up the page very neatly, careful not to flatten out the embossed seal. Every crease was as straight as the lines of her writing. She placed the folded paper gently in her battered backpack.

Somehow playing with the seal and stamps wasn’t as much fun as it had been a couple minutes earlier. 

Tommy thought quickly. What could he do? He’d done something to make Patty sad, so he needed to do something to make up for it.

Food! Food was always good. “Wanna get snacks from the cafeteria?” Tommy suggested.

The spark started to come back into Patty’s eyes as she looked up at Tommy. “Think they’ll have cookies?”

***  
The kitchen was one of Tommy’s favorite places in the Westeros building. It was filled with comfortable warm steam, smelled good, and felt busy in a happy way. Plus, the cooks were always nice to him. They let him measure ingredients and push the buttons on the big metal mixers, and they let him taste food while it was being made to see if it needed more salt. The cooks liked when he asked questions - not like some of the executives who just gave the shortest answers possible so they could get back to their work, or only listened to him when Mama was right there watching. The cooks acted like they actually wanted him there and wanted to hear what he’d said.

The cooks were all busy when Tommy and Patty got to the kitchen. Tommy recognized a few of them: he spotted Ms. Washington among the dozens of people working in the main room, stirring one of the huge metal vats of soup. She was one of the nicest of all the cooks. 

Tommy craned his neck around to check on Boots, peering through the little gap he’d left in the zippered top of his backpack. She looked happy enough – she’d settled down on top of Tommy’s sweatshirt and dozed off. Mama would probably yell at him for getting cat hair on his sweatshirt, and thinking about that made Tommy’s stomach knot up a little, but the knots didn’t seem as tight as they had a couple hours ago. Here in the kitchen with Patty next to him and Ms. Washington just a few feet away, everything felt better.

Patty crept forward, peering cautiously around the corner of a huge metal cabinet – first one way and then the other, then back the first way again. “Is it safe to go over there?” she whispered. “I can scout ahead to make sure.”

“It’s okay,” Tommy reassured her. He felt funny talking in his normal voice when Patty was whispering, so he dropped his voice too when he said, “The cooks won’t mind us being in here. They’re all really nice.”

“Are you sure?” Patty whispered back. “’Cause I think this looks like the kind of place that needs _covert operations._ ”

Tommy’s eyes widened, and caught some of the eager spark from Patty’s. “Ohhhh,” he said, understanding. This was another one of Patty’s adventures. He thought quickly – how could he play along? What would he do if this were a spy movie? “Yes, you’re right,” he stalled. “This is covert. Um.” Then inspiration hit. “I think we need to test all the food! To see make sure that it’s all right.”

Patty grinned, and Tommy felt like he’d gotten the right answer. “I think so,” she agreed. 

Two small heads, one blonde and one brown, peered out from around the corner of the cabinet, checking to see if the coast was clear. Then Tommy and Patty darted out across the aisle and ducked down behind a smaller cabinet. “You know where they keep the spoons, right?” Patty whispered. Tommy nodded, puffing up a little with the importance of knowing so much about the kitchen. “You get some, then. I’ll keep a lookout.”

Ever so carefully, Tommy crept around the corner of the cabinet, crouched low so that nobody would see. Once Tommy thought that Ms. Washington might have spotted him, and he kept very still, holding his breath until she chuckled and turned back to her soup. While Ms. Washington’s back was turned, Tommy grabbed a huge handful of spoons out of a drawer and dashed back to Patty.

“Got it!” he whispered, beaming with pride. He’d done a mission! “I’ve got lots. You need to have a different spoon each time you taste,” he explained. “Ms. Washington said.”

Patty gave that serious consideration. “Oh. That makes sense. No double-dipping, right?” Then she grinned again. “Now let’s test!” They sneaked along the length of the low cabinet, crouched down and darting wary glances over at Ms. Washington every few steps while they searched for things to taste. Had she seen them? Once or twice Tommy thought he saw her looking their way, but she always just smiled and went back to work, so he guessed that she hadn’t spotted them.

Jackpot! A huge wheeled rack full of trays stood at the end of the aisle. They ran the last few steps and ducked around to the far side.

Patty dove in first, peeling back the plastic wrap from one of the trays to stick her spoon in. “Hm,” she mumbled thoughtfully as she chewed. “Chicken salad with cranberries and nuts. I like it. Definitely all right for the public to eat.” She stuck the used spoon in her backpack, pulled another one out, and carefully replaced the plastic wrap before moving on. “Butterscotch pudding! Not bad, but chocolate would be better.”

Tommy circled around to the other rack. “Ooh, what’s this?” He dug his spoon into a vat of something pale pink and creamy – maybe strawberry mousse? Or strawberry whipped cream? Then he tasted it. “YUCK!” He spat furiously, desperately trying to get the horrible taste out of his mouth.

“What’s wrong?” Patty gasped.

“It’s hummus!” Tommy spat. “With _beets_!”

“What?” Patty’s face screwed up in disgust. “Who puts beets in hummus? Why would anyone put beets in hummus? That is _nasty_!”

“It’s the worst thing ever in the world!” Tommy moaned. They’d both completely forgotten about the covert operations. Who could think about secrecy when you’d just been surprised by beets?

Which is why Tommy probably should have expected to see Ms. Washington come around the corner of the rack. “Everything okay back here?” she asked. Her expression was serious, but her eyes twinkled and her mouth tugged up at the corners. 

“Um. Um.” Tommy started to shrink back, dodging away from her. 

But then he stopped himself. She wasn’t going to hit him like Jeffrey. She probably wasn’t even going to yell like Mama. This was Ms. Washington – she didn’t do things like that. She was even smiling, sort of.

“Everything okay?” Ms. Washington asked again. “I was worried you’d gotten hurt back here, the way you were yelling.”

“Everything’s fine,” Patty spoke up quickly. “We’re not hurt.”

“Well, that’s good,” Ms. Washington replied. She angled a pointed look towards the cluster of spoons that each of the children held in their hands. “What are you doing there? Supervising the operations?” 

It was Patty who answered. “Yes, ma’am!” she replied, crisp and official. Tommy guessed they were in an army movie now instead of a spy movie. “Everything is satisfactory.”

“Really?” Ms. Washington asked. “Then what was the yelling about?”

“Can I make a request?” Tommy asked. He was trying very very hard to stay quiet, but he could feel the question bubbling up inside him, just aching to come out.

Ms. Washington’s forehead crinkled with concern as she caught the urgency in Tommy’s voice. “What is it, honey?”

“Can you get rid of the beet hummus?” Tommy blurted. “And all the beets?” His face screwed up in revulsion all over again just thinking about the beet hummus. “They’re awful!”

Ms. Washington laughed softly. “I think we can arrange that.”

“Thank you!” Tommy cried in a rush of relief. And then before he could think, he continued, “Okay, now, Patty, what do you want them to change?” 

Then he stopped short, sudden uncertainty seizing him. What was he doing, asking a question like that? He wasn’t supposed to tell grownups what to do! That was what Jeffrey had always done – he made people do what he wanted them to, just because he could. Mama said that Tommy should get used to doing it too, but every time Tommy tried to order grownups around, he felt all wrong.

But Ms. Washington was still smiling, and she looked like she was honestly happy, too – not just pretending to smile the way grownups sometimes did around Mama or Jeffrey. Maybe it was different because Tommy had asked instead of telling? Or maybe because he was asking for Patty instead of himself? Either way, Ms. Washington said, “It’s all right, honey. Go ahead.”

Tommy wasn’t surprised that Patty had her own ideas about what should be changed. “Can you have chocolate pudding instead of butterscotch?”

Ms. Washington considered this seriously. “Well, let’s see,” she replied. “Mike?” she called across the kitchen to one of the other cooks. “Have we got any chocolate pudding in the walk-in?” Mike disappeared into the huge walk-in fridge to check. “If we don’t have any today, we can definitely get some for tomorrow.”

Tommy and Patty glanced at each other, and Tommy wondered if Patty was feeling the same way he was – that there was something special going on. There had to be, for a grownup to listen to them the way Ms. Washington was.

“Yup, we’ve got chocolate,” Mike called back. “Should I put that out instead of the butterscotch?”

“Please do,” Ms. Washington said. Patty and Tommy grinned at each other happily. This was getting better and better. “I think we’ve got some extra cookies, too,” Ms. Washington continued. “Tommy, I know you like double chocolate best. Patty, what about you?”

“Can I have peanut-butter-chocolate-chip?” Patty asked eagerly. A second later, she remembered to add “Please?”

“And may I have milk, too, please?” Tommy added. It would go with the cookies, but he also wanted to give Boots a treat, too. She was probably pretty unhappy after being cooped up in his backpack again. He hoped that Ms. Washington hadn’t figured out that he had a kitten with him, because then he would probably be in deep trouble. 

But if she had, she didn’t say so. She just gave them each a cookie and a little carton of milk, and sent them out into the hall. “You two have a good time, now,” she said with another smile, and closed the huge kitchen doors behind them.

“Good job, soldier!” said Patty, thumping Tommy on the back. They were still in an army movie, he guessed.

“Thank you, ma’am!” Tommy gave his best salute – which was a little off because he was holding a cookie in that hand – and Patty grinned. They plunked down on the floor outside the kitchen door, and while Patty started in on her cookie, Tommy set down his backpack and scooped Boots out, then opened up the milk carton for her. She mewed happily, and snuggled into his lap to drink.

For a few minutes they just sat there eating their cookies. Then Tommy spoke up as himself, not the army-movie person. “Patty? Wanna go talk to Mr. Dawes? Maybe we could ask for your dad to get the day off on your birthday.”

When Patty looked back at Tommy, she was herself, too, and her eyes were hopeful. “Okay,” she said softly.

***

Somehow, facing the big wooden door of the office of the Head of Maintenance was scarier than sneaking into the kitchen or posting official notices on the bulletin boards. Tommy wondered if Patty was going to put them back in a spy movie to make it easier to deal with, but she didn’t – she just stood there looking up at the door, not saying anything. 

Tommy guessed he could understand why she was scared. Mr. Dawes was her dad’s boss, which made him pretty important. Always know who’s got more power than you do, Mama said. Mr. Dawes had more power than Patty’s dad, and more power than Patty. Probably more power than Tommy, too, but they were still going to ask him for a favor.

Tommy knocked on the door, and a couple seconds later, it opened. 

Mr. Dawes was tall and skinny, wearing a plaid work shirt and a belt with all kinds of tools on it. He blinked down at Tommy and Patty in surprise. “Oh! Mr. Thomas.” He glanced down the hall with wary eyes, as if he were expecting to see someone he didn’t like behind Tommy. When he didn’t see anyone else there, Mr. Dawes frowned a little, confused and cautious. “And…” Mr. Dawes looked hard at Patty, clearly trying to come up with her name too, but he couldn’t. He just turned back to Tommy and said, “What can I do for you?”

“This is Patty Small,” Tommy began. He’d been going over and over it in his head as they’d been walking. “Her dad is Joe Small.” That name meant something to Mr. Dawes – he nodded slowly, but still didn’t seem entirely happy withwhat was going on. Tommy looked over at Patty – maybe now was when she’d start the spy movie? Or the army movie? But she still didn’t. Tommy had to keep talking on his own. “Patty wants her dad to be there for her birthday, because he has to work a lot so he’s not around very much, so could he please have a vacation day on – um. September 23?” He thought that was the day that Patty had aid. He looked over to her for confirmation.

Patty nodded her quick agreement. “Yes,” she said, very quietly. And then, more hesitantly still, “Please?”

“It would be really great if you could do it. It would be _appreciated,_ ” Tommy added, hoping that a big word might help. “And we’ve got _documentation_!” More big words! And proof, too. “Patty, show him,” Tommy encouraged her. She took the carefully-folded paper out of her bag and held it out to Mr. Dawes, official seal showing at the bottom.

Mr. Dawes looked…well, not exactly unhappy, but not really happy either. Sort of confused, Tommy thought. Mr. Dawes read the official document for what felt like a long long time. “So,” he finally said, looking back at Tommy. “This would be doing your family a favor?”

Tommy had to think about that. It wasn’t really doing the family a favor, because it wasn’t something that Mama or anyone else wanted. It was something Tommy wanted, but he only wanted it because Patty did – she was his friend, and he wanted to help her. But Tommy was part of his family, so maybe it was doing the family a favor? And anyway, Tommy thought that if he said that it was, then Mr. Dawes would say yes, and that would let Patty spend her birthday with her dad, and _that_ was something good. 

“Yes,” Tommy decided - and then added, “Please?”

Mr. Dawes smiled, and Tommy and Patty let their breath out. “Okay, then. September 23. I’ll make a note of it. And…let me just make a phone call,” he added.

A few minutes later, their parents came storming in. Well, Patty’s dad didn’t storm – he just hurried, and looked more scared than angry. But Mama definitely stormed. “Thomas!” she shouted. “What do you think you’re doing?” Her hand clamped down on his arm, and he shrank back. 

Patty’s dad grabbed her, too, but it was to hug her. “I had no idea where you were! I told you not to go running off like that! Were you pretending to be a spy again?”

“I’m sorry, Dad,” Patty mumbled.

Mama was still yelling. “You disobeyed me, and you interfered with the running of the company! He’d better not have been bothering you.” She was talking to Mr. Dawes when she said that last bit, but she was still looking at Tommy, and the way she looked at him made it a threat.

“He wasn’t bothering me, ma’am,” Mr. Dawes said. “He was just trying to do some good.” Suddenly, both Mama and Mr. Small were quiet, and both looking at Tommy. Tommy squirmed a little – he didn’t like when everyone in the room was looking at him. “Doing good for the company,” Mr. Dawes added. “He was taking care of the employees.” He handed Patty’s official document over to Mr. Small, holding it out so that Mama could see, too. 

As Mr. Small read, a shaky smile started to spread across his face. “Oh, honey,” he said, and hugged Patty tighter. 

Mama was…trying not to smile even though she felt like she wanted to? Or trying to smile even though she didn’t want to? Tommy couldn’t really tell. “That’s what you did with your time?” Mama asked Tommy. “Got a day off for your little friend’s father?” 

Tommy nodded. “And a couple other things,” he said, because that was true, and felt like if he didn’t say it, he would be hiding something.

“Well.” Mama looked like she was about to say something else, but she didn’t. She just reached down to hold Tommy’s hand instead of his arm, and said, “Thank you for letting me know about this, Mr. Dawes. Now we need to leave, Tommy.”

She wasn’t yelling at him, not anymore. So Tommy felt brave enough to ask for one more favor: “Mama? Can Patty come over sometime? Um. If you want to, Patty?” he added quickly. “And if it’s okay with your dad?”

Mr. Small looked down at Patty, who was already nodding enthusiastically. “It’s fine with me,” he agreed.

“Well, then,” said Mama. Now everyone was looking at her, so she had to say, “All right. We’ll set something up. But we really do need to leave. Right now.” She was already steering Tommy towards the door.

“Bye,” Tommy said to Patty. 

She grinned back. “See you soon. You too, Boots.”

As soon as the door closed behind them, Mama let out a big breath, and let her shoulders slouch a little. “You’re going home now, Tommy. Leave the cat there, and then come back and meet me in my office.” And then, more softly, she added, “There’s nothing wrong in caring about people. Just don’t let yourself get hurt.”

Mama really meant what she was saying - Tommy could feel it. She sounded very very serious. So he was serious too, when he nodded to her. “Okay,” he said quietly. She reached out and hugged him for a second, then pushed him gently away down the hall.

As Tommy climbed into the waiting car, he was starting to feel happy again. He’d made the food better, helped someone get a day off, and made a friend. It had been a pretty good day.


End file.
